Baseball Clashes With No. 1 Arizona State

March 13, 2003

NORMAN, Okla. - No. 29 Oklahoma (10-3) will face its toughest competition of the season this weekend as they head west for a three-game set against the top-ranked team in the nation, Arizona State (28-1). The series begins Friday at 8 p.m.(CST) at Packard Stadium. Saturday and Sunday's start times are also set for 8 p.m.

The set of games will be the first of four contests played between the two schools this year. Arizona State returns Oklahoma's visit in April when the Sooners and Sun Devils clash again on April 29 at the SBC Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City.

DATES: March 14-16
FIRST PITCHES: Each game of the series will begin at 8 p.m. (CST).
BALLPARK: Packard Stadium (5,000)
LOCATION: Tempe, Ariz.
RADIO: The entire three-game series will be broadcast on locally on KREF (1400 AM) with radio veteran James Hale calling the action. The broadcast can also be heard on Oklahoma's official web site www.soonersports.com. Gametracker, which also can be accessed through soonersports.com, will be run throughout the series to provide fans live updates on the game's progress.
TELEVISION: None.
RANKINGS: Oklahoma is ranked 29th in the NCBWA ratings and 30th in the Collegiate Baseball and Sports Weekly/ESPN polls. Arizona State tops the nation's charts in the Collegiate Baseball and Sports Weekly/ESPN polls. Both the Baseball America and NCBWA polls have the Sun Devils ranked third.
ASU SERIES NOTES: During the last 13 years spanning Oklahoma head coach Larry Cochell's tenure, the Sooners own a close series edge over Arizona State, 11-9 ... Cochell is a 1964 graduate of Arizona State ... The Sooners and the Sun Devils have faced off each year for the last eight seasons ... ASU holds an 8-4 advantage since 1995 in games played in Arizona ... The two teams split a tough fought four game series last year ... OU took two of three in Tempe, while ASU claimed victory in the final game of the year in Oklahoma City ... All four games were two-run margins of victory for the winners ... The Sooners won the first of the three games at Ho Ho Kam Park, 6-3, last year ... After dropping the second game of the series, 6-4, Oklahoma defeated Arizona State, 7-5, in the series finale in Arizona ... The three game set was played at Ho Ho Kam Park (The Chicago Cubs' Spring Training facility) due to renovations at Packard Stadium ... The Sun Devils then pulled out a 7-5 win over the Sooners later in the season in OU's backyard at the Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City ... Oklahoma sophomore outfielder Brandon Jones recorded a career high with three RBI in the contest in OKC ... During his freshman year at California, Oklahoma junior catcher Spencer Wyman established a career high with three runs scored against Arizona State.

Last Time Out

The University of Oklahoma offense exploded for season highs in runs and hits in a dominating 20-4 win over Southern Illinois Wednesday afternoon at L. Dale Mitchell Park to complete a two-game sweep over the Salukis. The back-breaking blow by the Sooners came in the bottom of the eighth inning when they pounded out nine runs. All but two of the 15 players that stepped to the plate for OU collected hits in the 21 hit team effort. Three Sooners blasted home runs to account for eight of the game runs, including one by freshman pinch hitter Scott Rooker who contributed a three-run shot in his first collegiate at bat.

The Sooners batted around the lineup in the nine-run eighth inning beginning with sophomore pinch hitter Ben Pinkston's (2-for-2) single off the right field wall. After a quick strikeout by sophomore third baseman Matt Bose (1-for-4) for the first out in the next at bat, SIU pitcher Josh Joiner loaded the bases with two consecutive walks. Junior pinch hitter Denver Kitch (1-for-2) slugged a three-run double down the left field line to empty the bases. Kitch eventually came around to score on Rooker's homer to left field three batters later.

OU continued its onslaught following Rooker's home run with six-straight hits to record the final two runs of the frame. Pinkston hit another shot off the wall in center field in his second at bat of the inning to score a run and sophomore pinch hitter Greg Kish (2-for-2) knocked in another run with his second base hit of the game.

Oklahoma junior starting pitcher Charlie House (1-2) picked up his first win in his first start of the season. He worked around five hits and three errors in six innings of work. Although he was responsible for all four Saluki runs, House walked only one batter and struck out four.

Sooners At The Plate

As a team, Oklahoma is batting .316 with 20 home runs and 100 RBI ... The Sooner offense has recorded double digits in the hits column for six straight games ... OU exploded for its season high in runs (20) and hits (21) in the team's 20-4 victory over SIU on Wednesday ... Heading into the week, three Sooners ranked among the Big 12 Conference leaders in batting average ... Senior center fielder Reggie Willits, the team's leading hitter, ranked 14th in the league in the category ... He is also averaging the third best on base percentage in the Big 12 ... Senior second baseman Eddie Cornejo ranked 18th in the conference in hitting ... Sophomore left fielder Tyler Johnson's average placed him in 24th place in the league batting title race ... Junior third baseman Jay Yaconetti is making a name for himself as one of the Big 12's top power hitters ... Yaconetti topped the conference in slugging percentage and ranked in a tie for third in home runs ... Yaconetti was OU's leading hitter during last week's four-game stretch ... He led the team in every offensive category ... Yaconetti batted .562 (9-for-16) with nine runs scored and nine RBI ... His offensive performance for the week also included two home runs and four doubles ... Two Sooners are currently riding nine game hitting streaks which are the longest individual streaks of the season on the team ... Willits and sophomore utility player Matt Bose both claim the streaks which ties a career best for Bose ... Willits is batting .486 (17-for-35) with 12 runs scored during the streak, while Bose is hitting .324 (11-for-34) with 12 RBI ... With four RBI during the Salukis series, Bose took over the team lead in RBI and now has 16 for the season.

Sooners On The Mound

The Sooner pitching staff is currently sporting a 3.26 ERA and has struck out 91 batters while walking 39 ... The Sooners continue to rank as one of the Big 12 Conference's best pitching staffs ... Beginning the week, the team's ERA was the fourth best average in the conference ... Junior starting pitcher Buddy Blair continues to emerge as one of the pitching leaders on the team and in the Big 12 ... His 1.71 ERA tops the OU starting rotation and also ranks sixth in the league ... His recent complete game performance, the first of his career, over Michigan on Saturday places him in a tie for third in the league in the category ... Fellow junior hurler Mike Swindell sits in 13th place in the league ERA chase with a 2.70 mark ... He also appears among the conference leaders in opponent batting average with a .188 mark that ranked fifth best ... Swindell's low opponent average was aided by his most recent relief outing in which he only gave up one hit in the 12 batters he faced on Sunday versus Michigan ... Sophomore closer Jarod McAuliff peeked into the Big 12 listings this week in saves a tie for fourth with two saves ... Senior righthander Austin Mix lowered his season ERA by over two runs in his first start of the season on Tuesday versus Southern Illinois ... Mix pitched his fifth career complete game, struck out nine batters and gave up only two earned runs.

About No. 1 Arizona State

Arizona State (28-1) enters the weekend series as one of the hottest teams in the nation as they are riding a 19-game winning streak heading into this weekend's series. Several of their victories have come against some stiff competition as the Sun Devils have locked up wins over nationally-ranked Notre Dame and Long Beach State.

Offensively, the Sun Devils are batting at a torrid .360 clip with 38 home runs and 306 RBI. Five regulars in the ASU lineup are batting above the .400 mark with sophomore shortstop Dustin Pedoria leading the attack at .443. First baseman Jeff Larish is second on the club in batting average, but has clubbed a team best 11 home runs already on the season.

On the mound, the Sun Devils are just as hot with a 3.11 team ERA and a combined 235 strikeouts in 249 innings pitched. Starters Jered Liebeck and Erik Averill both lead the team with 5-0 marks and the duo are also tied for the staff best in strikeouts 27.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Baseball Clashes With No. 1 Arizona State

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